Cohen thwarted in Hyro tilt

High-profile technology entrepreneur Gary Cohen has narrowly failed in his bid to derail the sale of ASX-listed digital services player Hyro, after shareholders voted to accept an offer from Nasdaq-listed Kit Digital on Friday afternoon.

Mr Cohen, the co-founder of recently sold health technology company iSOFT, had tabled an alternative proposal to shareholders, which would have seen him inject cash, take over the running of the company as executive chairman, and acquire a growing social media business to roll into Hyro.

At the company’s annual meeting, the Kit Digital offer, of $2 million in cash plus 1.84 million Kit Digital shares – a total transaction minimum value of $14.68 million – was narrowly accepted 10,821,266 votes to 10,217,918, or 51 per cent in favour versus 49 per cent against.

The cash and scrip bid has been marred by a 40 per cent drop in Kit Digital shares since the offer was announced on April 23, and Mr Cohen – a 10 per cent shareholder in Hyro – wanted to inject $1.6 million to strengthen its ­balance sheet and grow it as an “intellectual property-based business."

The plan was to use Hyro as a backdoor listing for the social media interests of Gary Munitz, which includes the online marketing business Social Loot, a company Mr Cohen had invested in through his Marcel Equities business.

The company’s board made no public statements about the time frame for the Kit Digital acquisition after the meeting, or the narrow victory it had achieved over Mr Cohen.

A philosophical Mr Cohen simply pointed to the tight nature of the vote.